The Jamey Dodger Society

[ninedaysaqueen]

For prevention of cruelty to reprobates.

Current Members
ninedaysaqueen
smallsotong
inkasrain
an_english_girl
dannybailey
filkferengi
mikkaybear
agh_4
frosted_feather

*rings gong*

I call to order the first meeting of the Jamey Dodger Society, a group for those who have read a "Thick as Thieves" arc or want to become as spoiled as Varuca Salt.

Comments

Re: Questions I still have

[ninedaysaqueen]

On #4...

I was just re-reading this whole thing AGAIN, and I'm trying to reason this out.

Costis doesn't expect the war ships, because they were suppose to arrive in secret. Kamet thinks they are there to arrest him, because Nahuseresh is dead. However, Nahuseresh is not dead, so that's clearly not the reason. Also, because Costis doesn't know about the whole lie-to-Kamet plan, therefor how could he be expected to figure that out? I doubt Teleus knows anything about it. either.

So, so, so, Kamet said the other Attolian soldiers who went in different directions were decoys. Decoys for what? Perhaps, trying to mask who brought Kamet back from Medea? Possibly, for Ornon's benefit, since he is the one who brought Costis into Medea. However, Costis stands in the hall with Kamet when he is granted public audience, so this seems unlikely...

Melheret is still at court, so the most likely thing seems to be that they are trying to confuse him and any Mede spies as to exactly how they brought Kamet into Attolia and escort him safely to the palace.

Also, the part where Costis is poking Teleus in the chest and Kamet is thinking that's a very bad idea was hilarious. XD
It's a little odd to me that he thinks it's out of character, because he's acting very much like KoA Costis now that he's back home. Of course, Kamet hasn't really seen much of this side of him.

Re: Questions I still have

[smallsotong]

I re-read it as well, and I agree that the operation was mostly for obscuring Kamet and Costis' arrival, but I still don't 100% understand why it was done in the way it was.

These are the bits of information that we have:

- It's the palace guard that's sent to get them (leaving the palace+king+queen less guarded than normal?)
- Teleus announces their arrest 'loudly': the only people around to hear this are the captain, crew, and guard, so presumably this is for the captain/crew’s benefit.
- They’re treated more gently going from galley -> land than they are from merchant ship -> galley (again, this points to the captain+crew being the target of the deception)
- There are decoy soldiers sent in different directions. It is unclear if the soldiers know that they are decoys, or if they believe they are just keeping the city secure given the general uncertain situation.
- The city is empty and the shops are closed, presumably because of the news of the miscarriage. This also means there isn’t anyone out and about to observe Costis/Kamet being escorted to the palace, other than the guard.
- They go in a circuitous route to the palace and enter from the back, and are put into a cell
- There is some debate about whether Costis should guard or be guarded. Teleus gives Costis the bare minimum of information/context, likely to placate righteous-angry! Costis so he’d at least stop yelling and poking people in the chest XD

Some thoughts/interpretations:

- The galleys and shipboard arrest gave the captain/crew the impression that their passengers were not actually favoured agents of the king, but potential enemies/traitors/etc. This might scare the captain and crew into not saying anything to anyone about their passengers, for fear of associating themselves with enemies of the crown. If they had come into port and been well-paid and seen Costis/Kamet whisked away secretly , they would likely have talked a lot more to their friends in the wineshops. (I hope the captain did get paid eventually, though)

- In the cells, my guess is that Teleus was trying to figure out how best to handle Costis to minimize the amount of general blabbing that he did (either through angry-shouting or indignant justifying-himself-and-his-mission to the other guards).

- The empty streets and decoy guards are the part that I haven’t completely figured out - it doesn’t seem to fit together for me. Would news of the miscarriage have leaked down to the wineshops quite so quickly, and would it warrant a full lockdown of the city streets? We know Gen has, by this time, won the respect of his court - would uncertainty over Attolia’s life create instability in the capital? Based on what we know of Attolia, I would expect the barons (who are farther out from the city) might be more of a threat than the regular people in the capital. So this whole affair either points to (1) Gen/Irene don’t have as much control over the flow of information from his court AND over the people in the capital as I thought they did; or (2) whether or not the miscarriage was a real thing, some of the information-flow and use of the guards in the city is being manipulated to serve other purposes (possibly including the semi-secret transfer of Kamet).

Re: Questions I still have

[ninedaysaqueen]

Stop poking people in the chest, Costis! Especially, scary Attolian captains. Hehe... Righteous indignant Costis is the best! Also, part of the reason he's angry is he's trying to protect Kamet and take the blame, which is just so him.

It think that sums things up nicely. Unless there's information we do not have because Kamet is the narrator and believes he is being arrested for something he is not, the interpretation that the whole thing is a song and dance to mask who Costis and Kamet are and why they are being brought to the palace seems the most likely explanation.

I thought that the wine shops were closed and the city was quiet out of respect for the royal family. Though, it does seem to be very good timing, considering no one knew exactly when Costis would get back or if he would succeed at all. Would Gen and Irene fake a pregnancy and a miscarriage? That seems pretty extreme and they both appear to be genuinely upset, so I don't think that's the case.

Another thought, is that Eugenides may've foreseen that Kamet would expect to be arrested on arrival, since he had deceived him and not the other way around. Receiving Kamet as a guest would've just confused him, and he would've assumed news of Nahuseresh's death hadn't reached Attolia yet. So, escorting them with a boat-load of guards and locking them in the dungeon may have also been to prevent Kamet from trying to escape, till Eugenides could explain that he was safe.

Alternatively, Teleus may just really like locking people in the dungeon? He did the same thing to Sophos and the Magus! XD